Sochi's 2014 Winter Olympics: The Who, What, And How Of American Viewership

Patrick Rishe
, ContributorI cover the economics of the sports industry.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Thanks to data supplied by RepuCom, we have some insights as to what American television viewers will be watching and noticing during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Viewership:

- 65% of U.S. adults (or nearly 158 million folks) will watch some of the Olympics;

- And among those watching, the most watched events will be Figure Skating (93 million), Ski Jumping (79 million), and then Speed Skating, Bobsled, Alpine Skiing, and Snowboarding all range between 63-68 million expected viewers.

Athlete Visibility:

- As a hockey enthusiast, it's a sobering reality check that one of the NHL's best players is considerably less popular than a snowboarder. Yet two of the Games more visible athletes really don't compete against each other in terms of awareness and marketability. American snowboarder Shaun White scored 63.9 on the Davie-Brown Index while Canadian hockey star Sidney Crosby scored 40.7. Consistent with this disparity, White's awareness score is 62.3% versus only 22.5% for Crosby.

Viewership Demographics:

- 51% male, 49% female;

- 37% will be 55 and older, 32% will be 35-54, and 31% between 18-34;

- 40% will be college educated and 26% will be merely high school graduates or less.

Most Visible Sponsors:

- 49% of U.S. adults recognize Visa as an Olympic sponsor;

- Coke and McDonald's are distant runners-up at 7% and 4% recognition, respectively.

Using Social Media:

- 36% of Olympic viewers will use Facebook to follow parts of the action, 16% will use YouTube, and 16% will use Twitter.